


One of These Nights

by youweremovingyourfeet (rosebud221B)



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: All the best conversations happen slightly inebriated outdoors, But don't worry they'll break after a week of living together, Drinking, IMO, Late Night Conversations, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sorry the boys were not cooperating into a kiss here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21856117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosebud221B/pseuds/youweremovingyourfeet
Summary: Both Steve and Billy would rather wander around in the woods than face their nightmares.It was only a matter of time before they ran into each other.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28
Collections: Harringrove Holiday Exchange 2019





	One of These Nights

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sirsparklepants](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirsparklepants/gifts).



> Welp here's my (slightly late) entry into the Harringrove Holiday Exchange!
> 
> Hope everyone, but especially sirsparklepants, enjoys!

It’s 6 weeks before Billy is released from the hospital. It took the combination of the paramedics called by the Department of Energy, 2 surgeons, and some sneaky help from El to piece him back together after he nearly bled out on the mall floor. Steve remembers ushering the kids out of there, counting to make sure no one was left behind. He remembers picking up Max, who refused to leave, telling her she had to let the paramedics do their work, that her brother wouldn’t make it otherwise.  
  
He remembers being unsure if Billy would make it at all.  
  
Steve’s unsure how to feel, even all these weeks later. It’s not like him and Billy were ever friends, ever shared more than a few short nods after the fight. After Billy, more cautious than Steve had ever seen him, approached with a sincere apology and a still-healing face.  
  
And yet. Steve still feels something, something that makes him show up at the hospital, sneak past the nurses, and try to talk to Billy. Yea, maybe Max had also mentioned how lonely her brother seemed and that he had for some reason wanted to see Steve, but Steve had wanted to go anyway.  
  
He remembered that Billy had seemed so much smaller, hair still barely growing back from stubble after the government assholes shaved it to ‘run some tests’, robbed of his flashy clothes and jewelry. When he looked up at Steve, it seemed like he had seen a ghost.  
  
He barely talked that week, or the next week, when Steve got time off from the VHS store during visiting hours. But Steve would talk a bunch, chattering about his work, the kids, the cleanup, everything but Billy and the monster. And Billy would respond, all bare-faced sincerity and caution. Steve found himself wishing Billy would yell at him, tease him, be a little more himself.  
  
And then one day, 6 weeks after that night where Billy stood in front of a monster and said no, Steve came to the hospital to find that Billy had checked himself out against orders, walked out of the hospital and 2 miles beyond to the shop where his car sat, freshly repaired, and drove out of town, presumably never to be seen again.  
  
All that flew through Steve’s mind as he approached Billy, sitting above the quarry facing the moon. Steve was at the same time surprised and not surprised to see his car at the base of the quarry. He had figured Billy hadn’t actually gone too far, as Max hadn’t seemed all that upset after he left the hospital. Steve had also mentioned a few weeks ago how he would come out into the woods sometimes to escape, how much it helped to find some quiet when his head got too loud. Steve hoped he’d be a welcome intrusion.  
  
“Hey! Billy!”  
  
He figured he should announce himself quick. Billy scared a lot more easily now, and he was way too close to the ledge anyway.  
  
Billy turned almost immediately, face cast in shadow by the moonlight.  
  
“Hey Steve.” He always spoke half volume now, as if he was afraid yelling would reawaken the monster.  
  
“I got a 6-pack. Was planning on drinking a couple but if you’re here maybe we could split ‘em?” He wasn’t planning to only drink a couple, but Billy didn’t need to know that. Maybe this would be a better idea for them both.  
  
“Sure.” Billy still sounded lost, stuck in his own head. Steve could relate. Well, maybe he couldn’t. Everything Billy went through was so much worse than just swinging a bat around or throwing a couple punches. Steve just wasn’t strong enough, smart enough, couldn’t take the heat-  
  
“You just gonna stand there, or are you gonna hand me a beer?” Billy jolted him, blessedly, back to reality. Steve scurried over, sat on the rock next to Billy’s, and handed him a can.  
  
“Natty, huh? Nothing fancier for the rich kid?”  
  
“Sometimes you just want something that goes down like water.” Especially when you’re planning on drinking 6 of them.  
  
They sit for a moment, just staring out over the water, almost as bright as day under the full moon.  
  
“I like the dark now. Way more than I ever did before. Feels like I’m not alive in the day, like I’m back on that beach where nothing’s real.”  
  
It’s the first time Billy’s spoken about that time. El had said something after about how she had seen Billy on a beach, but Steve never knew what was real with that girl. She still weirded him out sometimes, with the way she looked at you and seemed to know everything about you.  
  
“You did get out though. You’re here. You made it.” Steve knows as soon as he says the words that they won’t mean anything to Billy, that it’s what any adult, any parent, would say. Maybe he’s been looking after those kids way too much.  
  
“Never feels like it though, after. You’d know that right, babysitter?” There’s a shadow of old Billy’s smile there, a bit of smirk.  
  
“Yea, guess you’re right about that. Definitely haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep.” That’s why he’s-  
  
“That’s why you’re here? Trying to work your way up to it?”  
  
Steve’s a little stunned. His response is a soft “Yea.”  
  
“Yea, I can’t sleep much either. Afraid I’m gonna wake up and it will be in control again.” He rubs a hand over his hair, growing back in short and curly. Steve thinks it looks good, then wonders why he thinks that.  
  
“Sorry to break it to you, but that doesn’t go away. I see the little demon dogs in my head all the time. Not that that’s anything like what happened to you but I’m just saying- I’m gonna shut up now.”  
  
Billy actually smiles at that. “Nah, that’s alright man. I’m sick of people lying to make me feel better, ya know?”  
  
Yea, Steve knows a little how it feels to be lied to ‘to save his feelings’.  
  
“Hey, man, where have you been? I stopped by the hospital, but they said you were already gone.”  
  
“I just needed to get away, y’know? I couldn’t be home, after everything...” He trails off.  
  
Yea, Steve knew what would have been waiting at home for him after everything. Max started chattering at him about everything Billy after Steve started visiting him in the hospital. That included some stuff Steve definitely didn’t want to know about Billy and his father.  
  
“A little heads up would have been nice.” Steve grins, lets Billy know it’s a joke.  
  
“Didn’t know you cared, Harrington.”  
  
“Yea, I guess I do.” Steve doesn’t know when they moved closer. He can feel something in the air, something familiar. He shakes it off a little, moves back.  
  
“Well, where are you gonna live now?”  
  
“I don’t know, was thinking of renting a place somewhere. Got a job in the next town over working on cars. Should make me enough to get out of here soon.”  
  
“And go back to Cali?”  
  
“Yea.”  
  
“Well, it sounds like rent would be expensive.” He pauses, gets ready. “You could always come stay with me. It’s not like I don’t have room.”  
  
Billy looks shocked, blue eyes wide.  
  
“Your parents…”  
  
“Don’t live there anymore really. Not since the divorce.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Why what?”  
  
“Why would you want me to stay there? I could wreck the Harrington mansion in a week easy.” Billy looks closed off again, not looking right at Steve.  
  
“Well, I’m not doing anything with the rooms, and I thought you could use a place to stay, and if you want to wreck the house be my guest. At least it’ll look like someone lives there.” Steve’s aware of the bitterness that creeps in at the end there.  
  
“I’m not your fucking charity case.”  
  
“No Billy, you’re my friend!” Steve stands up at that, frustrated with himself and Billy. “You’re my friend, and I want you to stay in my house. Is that clear enough for you?” He chucks the empty can into the quarry.  
  
A momentary pause. Then Billy gives him a full smirk, eyes on fire.  
  
“Yea that’s clear enough, Princess. You done with your tantrum?”  
  
“Shut the fuck up, dickwad.”  
  
They’re looking at each other again now, grinning. Billy’s eyes look almost silver with the moonlight. There’s that feeling again. Steve’s finding it harder to look away, but he does.  
  
“You wanna take the rest of these back to my place, sit by a fan?” Even if it’s not that hot anymore, Steve would rather bring Billy back home than have him out here, still fragile looking in the moonlight.  
  
“Sure thing, Princess. I’ll follow you back.” Billy holds out a hand, pulls him up.  
  
They walk back to their cars, shoulders brushing.


End file.
